Author Archives: Mare Martell

Ronnie Bill

I was told that I’m not allowed to offer family advice.

Twenty years gone but I made it out alive.

Let me tell you why you’re wrong, because you are.

I KNOW

what it’s like to hold bitterness

what it feels like to reject those who love me

what holidays, loneliness, and anger tastes like

what Christmas morning looks like without oranges

what Thanksgiving is like without mincemeat pie

what birthdays feel like without shared history seeping

what anguish unsupported loss endures

I KNOW

what it took to wake me up (although I’m sure you think it was you)

what I had to realize before I could bolster my courage

what it is to ask forgiveness for being a fool

to walk into the unknown with hat in hand

to step cautiously to the edge of the cliff and

JUMP

I KNOW

how much damage I’ve done but not to the extent

what rebuilding a bridge with still smoldering lumber is like

that sometimes bitterness takes the form of pride

that abuses of history, privilege, and birthright exist

that time goes faster than a blink

that it’s far later than you’d think

I KNOW

right now, (not that you’ll read this) you’re lost

you blame me for not having money, not loving him, but

most of all for loving you and not choking on your pride.

You are so far in the darkness that the light feels like an insult

I love you despite yourself.

I’ll still be here when you’re ready.

I made my six year old vow to always be there for you,

I KNOW

you didn’t and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t and didn’t for him

you won’t believe me.

I’m okay with that.

you need to return home before you’re too afraid to come back

you’re a better man than you’ve become

I believe in you even if I don’t understand why you chose this way.

I KNOW. I see. I LOVE you anyway.

TAMP: ORRUCIANS

 

IAMUULogo

2009 Unitarian Universalist

I ran away as fast as I could to find a safer place to be

I crossed rivers and swam oceans, foraged forests and climbed up trees

I ascended high rimmed mountains, rode hills with horses fast

I have kissed a thousand frogs and even married an ass!

I have met a fairy queen who tiptoe dances the floor

She is married to a humble bard who has to duck the doors

I stumbled into an elfin circle that sews with the finest of threads

And if you offer them rich brownies they take away the dreads

I heard a trumpeting truth come down from the pulpit hall

surrounded by the boughing trees, I heeded the beckoned call.

I danced naked with the witches circle at full moon and new

But never blocked by architecture, the witches window skewed.

I met the elders as they assembled together

to make magic happen in all kinds of weather.

I cherish the wisdom like life’s breath forgiven

I discovered a love that was so close to heaven

I was accepted as a magic star that glimmered in their midst

And with the breath of dandelion, I was granted my wish.

Safe harbor, my safe haven, my beloved fairyland

I carry with me the magic that you granted to my hands

September

Autumn

The glaring green leaves cling to their false lives.

They whisper their imaginary self righteous recital

A breeze offers intimate intonation

the bravest warms considerably, accepting

abandoning the tittering siblings

whom are dressed in last season’s fashions.

Not to be outdone, the sisters join the fray

Out come the plaid jackets and flannel shirts

Apples burst the buckets, turn to mulled cider

Fall squashes, root vegetables, homemade soap

the scent of subtle decay burning in offering pyres

remnants of summers hopes setting in worldy sunset.

 

Just Be

What can I tell you that you don’t already know?

I could say I love you, I want you, or I need you

But

It means nothing until it wraps around you like a cold pool on a lemonade type of day. 

It won’t grasp purchase until you swallow it like the Miracle Max chocolate covered prompter. 

The message will fall into the void of space, heard by aliens billions of miles away while being mistranslated as, “You are god.”

I do love you as much as you allow.

I want you to be whatever leads to your bliss.

I need you to disregard my judgement while you flourish into your density, I mean destiny.

Quickly now. TICK! TOCK! Time is irrelevant when you can just BE.

The Sun Returns

09142015SunsetSail

Grand Haven, MI September 2015 

When the rains came, she retreated to harbor for haven.

The umbrella outstretched in somber funereal black

Allowing the thundering winds while making water craven

to bleach the bearing bones of the burden laden back.

Because it is always okay (or will be), the sun returns

She is gone before dawn with nary a mark left graven

From the ancient predictions foreseen in the almanac

Her gypsy blood would eternally call her the sea maven

The depth of her affection, like the ocean, a partial amnesiac.

Crap from Walfart

​Hey Mister! Let me give you my dollar so I can feed my family the sewage you sell under the guise of low prices.

I don’t know that forcing entire families in other countries to work for peanuts to produce the shit you’re hawking is a low price.

I’m pretty sure that when your employees hold food drives for one another because even they can’t afford your manure, is a low price.

I don’t mean to sound contrary, but hearing your employees stories on gofundme pages while they die in your aisles is not conducive to low prices.

I congratulate you on selling the American dream, made in Afghanistan, Bangladesh  or China, from behind the smoke and mirrors. They don’t even realize they are the goods you’re selling off to the lowest bidder. That takes marketing skills to peddle that crapola.

Aleppo, Syria

Omran Daqneesh
There is a little child in Aleppo born
Exploding waves of violent storm
Raging fires silently call harm
Yet the tiny child raises no alarm.
Ali Daqneesh
This is our child. Our daughter or our son
Our children have now become only one
Innocence bombed in a dawn of mourning
We heard the cries, refused the warnings.
Now we witness our barren crops dead
Help them! Somebody!
We are not what we said.

They are speaking

unlock

Tornadic bursts of clarity that light the path so long hidden

Lightning flashes of dervish danced love now bidden

The dialect is moving my feet forward, but

the roots had to reach ancestral proportions

to stretch closer to the stars without distortion.

Outreached hands grip, grasp, climb the galaxies

as Terraria celebrates the gateway rendered of fallacies

Although precarious in balance, it’s to advantage giv’n

that tornadic bursts of clarity pursue the debris forgiven